By Mike Scerbo

The Grand Canyon Dinner Theater and Steakhouse opened recently . Its approval seemed inevitable as the majority of the Town Council and the planning and zoning commission work for the theater’s owner, Elling Halvorson. In fact Commissioner ClayAnn Cook has been on the Halvorsen payroll for some time as a manager of the theater.  She was on board when the facility was a museum that closed its doors after a short run.

Back then, Halvorson managed to employ lots of locals friendly to the Stilo development plan at the Museum, and it seems as if that’s the case now.

 It’s odd that Stilo and its friends seem to open up these large businesses right before elections.  You may remember right after the council elections two years ago, the museum folded. Now that another election looms, all of a sudden we have a new enterprise chock full of Halvorsen workers.

Look for lots of them because Halvorson will be paying cast members as much as $700 a week and provide them housing according to this NAU theater Department posting. http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=281279980140&story_fbid=10150747111060141

As residents, they could vote in the upcoming election. We’ll have to wait and see if the curtain comes down after the next council election.